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Category: Kevin Falcon

A skilled and practised word hunter, Ian Reid can flush out sources from behind stone walls. Thursday, he scooped the Legislature’s press gang and published Mea culpa, mea culpa, the release that Christy […]

Government Press Release, January 2012: “Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has won the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Golden Scissors award for cutting red tape for business by more than 40% …” I […]

REPLAY, first published Nov. 28, 2011 According to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon’s first quarterly report for the current year, “As well, the fiscal plan assumes the current public sector compensation negotiating mandate […]

Paraphrasing Benjamin Disraeli’s words to the British Parliament in 1845, “The BC Liberal government is an organized hypocrisy.” I visited the BC Liberal website today and found this homepage. The frame from […]

When the referendum delivered an unwanted result, BC’s provincial government reshaped, polished and coordinated messages to the public. One particularly troublesome claim, made by Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the July 2009 HST announcement, […]

In response to the vote rejecting the massive shift in consumption taxes from business to consumers, Christy Clark seems to have learned nothing, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon only a little. Falcon today […]

Cuts announced in Tuesday’s federal budget are “the result of identifying efficiencies in operation“, says DFO Minister Gail Shea. By 2014, almost $57 million will be trimmed from Fisheries and Oceans. Read […]

I’ve hinted about the BC Liberal Government becoming porous as moral conflict rises among insiders displeased with its ethical standards. For the few individuals who gain, many others feel shamed by dishonorable […]

The BC Liberal Party claims almost 50,000 new members since its leadership race began with a total membership now approaching 90,000. Kevin Falcon’s camp accuses Christy Clark’s camp of bypassing membership sign-ups. […]

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Reader assistance makes it possible to deliver fact-based analyses of public issues. Resource industries spend millions of dollars each year to advance their positions but my work is funded by readers, independent of any special interests.

The BC Business Party told many contemptuous lies during its tenure but ones involving LNG were the largest. The captured corporate media crew in BC's Legislative Press Gallery facilitated Liberal untruthfulness by failing to look behind or beyond government press releases. Attentive research would have convinced any objective researcher that government […]

In the May 2017 election, only two of the main parties committed to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. BC Liberals were uncomfortable with clauses related to informed consent that would interfere with business of their corporate donors. John Horgan's NDP Government and Andrew Weaver's Green Party committed to a diff […]

With news the BC Ferries vessel Spirit of British Columbia is about to sail to Europe for an extensive refit, I bump this article back to the top. - In October 2015, the Commissioner approved $173 million for the project but, as evidenced by the confidential order three months later, increased the approved amount by $46 million to $219 million. Instead of fi […]

Brady Yauch is an economist at the Consumer Policy Institute (CPI), which identifies itself as “an independent think-tank dedicated to achieving lower costs and greater efficiencies for Canadian consumers, particularly in sectors run by government monopolies or those receiving large subsidies.” Mr. Yauch published a powerful examination of mismanagement at u […]

In modern times, the Canadian union movement has lost influence but not relevance. It is easy to forget that unions enabled a broad middle class. Workers in unionized company towns in BC’s 20th century resource economy set the bar for others. They showed how positive full employment with good wages enables high quality life for the entire community.

When Encana's founding CEO Gwyn Morgan became Christy Clark's transition team advisor, natural gas producers knew they'd bet on a good thing. After six years of Clark, we now see just how good that thing was for gas companies.

When a new government takes office, there is often a significant change at senior levels of the civil service and among OIC political appointments. One person still employed by the Horgan government may surprise more than a few people.

I'm hopeful that writers and readers in the online world of BC politics will find a suitable way to remember and celebrate Merv Adey. He took a serious interest in improving political reporting and perhaps a bursary or award in Merv's name to a worthy student of journalism would be appropriate. Let me know if you agree.

When British Columbia conducts LNG negotiations behind closed doors, without public statements of principles or bargaining frameworks, citizens should worry. I have written about our government's willingness to provide the gas industry with 9-figure production subsidies and Liberal aversion to collection of natural gas royalties but there is another sub […]

Muskrat Falls was always a done deal, and a bad one says Pam Frampton, Saint John’s Telegram. "One week the project was all about clean energy, the next it was job creation, then it was all about being an affordable energy source, then it was a means of foiling Quebec, then it was a lure for mining companies.” The Progressive Conservatives’ sales pitch […]